The Burgess Boys, by Elizabeth Strout

The Burgess boys are Jim and his younger brother, Bob.  Both lawyers, the elder is married and has defended a famous case which made him a household word during the trial. Bob has a twin sister, Susan, who neither brother is too fond of.  Bob is divorced and working for Legal Aid.  Jim has always denigrated the less successful Bob.  The brothers have escaped to Brooklyn from their hometown, the small mill town of Shirley Falls, Maine, but Susan has remained behind.  She is also divorced and has a troubled son, Zach.  Shirley Falls has had an influx of Somali immigrants who are Muslim and not well accepted or understood in the community.  For no real reason, Zach pitches a frozen pig’s head into their small mosque during Ramadan, causing a situation which reaches the nightly news.  When the brothers return to Shirley Falls to help with Zach’s legal defense, family secrets and tensions are revealed.  I liked the book less than the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kittredge, but it is still a good study in sibling relationships and the tensions between immigrants and small-town Americans. 320 pp.